One hug and one selfie at a time, Biden’s mission to connect.
One handshake, one hug and one selfie at a time. If President Joe Biden could greet every American this way, longtime allies say, his approval ratings would soar.
Biden has never been at his best in big speeches, where his delivery can be stilted, his stories sometimes meandering. It’s the end of his speech* that often marks the beginning of Biden’s favorite part of an event — the rope line, in the parlance of political operatives. He whirls around, scans the crowd and zeroes in on his first target for a one-on-one connection.
It might be with someone like Tim Eichinger, a Milwaukee brewery owner who asked Biden a question during a TV town hall 20 months ago, and has since had a one-on-one videoconference with the president and seen Biden send a couple of letters to his grandson.
It might be a small child — Biden likes to carry some cash so he can discretely slip kids a few dollars** and encourage them to buy ice cream. It might be someone who stutters — they come in for special attention from the president.
AP morphed into Soviet-era propaganda to cover for the doddering Biden so slowly, I hardly even noticed. Compare that to the headline that AP conjured during the middle of George W. Bush’s last year in office: Everything seemingly is spinning out of control.
* When frequently, a befuddled Biden can’t figure out how to walk away from the podium.
** That’s one way to describe Creepy Joe’s actions.